TOMORROW’S Duhallow Kanturk fixture at Dromahane marks the first point-to-point on the Cork and Waterford circuit this season, and it features the last of the three non-graded open lightweight races that have been programmed for the autumn term.

With 17 entries for the card’s feature race, that total matches the number of entries for the similar non-graded open at Tinahely last month, and it is clear that they have proven to be popular additions to the schedule, particularly in this autumn segment.

These races were introduced in response to the 2022 autumn campaign where former Grade 1 winners had a significant impact on the division, winning exactly half of the opening 22 open races last season.

Excluding non-graded winners from these three races has certainly not made the races any less competitive, arguably emphasising the current depth that has been evident in the open lightweight division in the opening weeks of the season.

At Tinahely, the 15-runner non-graded open included a quartet of horses in Fakir D’Alene, Ramillies, Ronald Pump and the former Irish National victor Freewheelin Dylan that have all been rated in excess of 144 under rules.

Yet despite that, victory in the race went to Focus Point, a horse that had risen through the point-to-point ranks in the previous 12 months following an older maiden success.

The non-graded open at Moira witnessed Wowsham triumph by 15 lengths and he is an eight-year-old whose sole previous success came in a Perth maiden hurdle two years earlier.

Ross Crawford’s charge is among those 17 entries at Dromahane tomorrow, and it looks no more an easier prize to win than many of the open races that have preceded it this season, with the opposition potentially including the likes of Vaucelet, Ferns Lock, Screaming Colours and The Bosses Oscar.

THIS afternoon should have seen Kirkistown taking centre stage on the point-to-point front, however it has become the second fixture in as many weekends to be cancelled due to the recent wet spell.

Last weekend it was Rathcannon that was claimed by the deluge of rain that has hit the country throughout the month of October, and Kirkistown, the venue of the North Down Foxhounds fixture, was found to be waterlogged when inspected last week, which has resulted in the cancellation of today’s meeting.

Soft ground has been the dominant factor across the opening six weekends right from the outset of the season when Castletown Geoghegan kickstarted the campaign on soft ground.

Nine of the 11 subsequent fixtures since that season-opening fixture have been run on ground which has featured either soft or heavy in the going description.

So often the month of October has gone either two ways ground wise. The opening weeks of the 2021 autumn campaign saw good ground prevailing, and even by December of that same season there was a Lingstown fixture run on good ground.

Challenge

The irregular nature of the climate at present does pose more of a challenge for all involved in the sport, from the volunteer committees to handlers, many of whom may have readied their better ground horses for the early weeks of the season in the hope of getting early runs in before the winter ground had set in.

Considering all that, the number of runners in the early weeks of this season has held up reasonably well.

Compared with the opening six weekends of last season, the average number of runners per fixture has increased, albeit the increase is skewed by the continued strength of the four-year-old division which contributed to the first division of the season that occurred at Lisronagh last Saturday.

THE ramping up of the National Hunt season in October has brought with it a strong start to the campaign for former point-to-pointers who have won a total of 130 races under rules during the month.

From Trent Lane winning at Fontainebleau in France, to Monbeg Stream who was a big timber winner stateside in Genesee Valley, those success have been spread far and wide, and were headlined by a trio of Grade 2 victories for horses that started their careers with a number of Wexford-based handlers.

Colin Bowe’s Knockanard winner Captain Teague build upon his Grade 1 Champion Bumper placing by making a winning start over hurdles in the Grade 2 Persian War Novices’ Hurdle at Chepstow for Paul Nicholls.

That success was followed by another Grade 2 novice hurdle victory, this time for Lookaway, and Sean Doyle’s debut Kildorrery winner led home a clean sweep of the placings in the Sky Bet Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham for horses that had all run throughout the 2021/’22 pointing season here.

His Cheltenham victory was followed 48 hours later by the Old Roan Chase success at Aintree of Jetoile, as the Jeremy gelding achieved his career highlight success having run four times in points for Richard Black.

Those positive results auger well ahead of today’s rescheduled Grade 1 Ladbrokes Champion Chase at Down Royal, which at the revised entry stage earlier this week saw pointing exports account for four of the six contenders including Gerri Colombe, Minella Indo and Envoi Allen.